Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Le Jardin des Plantes is a botanical garden established in 1635 under the reign of Louis XIII. Originally called le Jardin du Roy, the King's Garden, it--with all of its galleries, laboratories, menagerie, collections and library--was renamed le Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle during the French Revolution. Its menagerie, created in 1793, is the second oldest zoo in the world.

Vocabularyun dodo: a dodo, an extinct flightless bird found on Mauritius until the late 17th centuryun manège: a carousel, a merry-go-round; a riding schoolfaire un tour de manège: to have a ride on a merry-go-roundune ménagerie: a menagerie, i.e., a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition

Children's Song
Listen to Le Dodo, number 20 on the list of this link by French children's entertainer Chantal Goya